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November 11, 2011August 10, 2012

Kotki Dwa – Talk Star Trek, Milton Keynes And Not Being Fully Polish

Kotki Dwa – Halloween

On the back of the imminent release or their upcoming, and very much excellent, new Ep ‘Lunch’ Kotki Dwa were kind enough to drop some charming witticisms into our inbox to share with you lot. Get Reading:

Kotki Dwa, starting at the top who are you and how did the band get started?

We are Kotki Dwa and we have been playing music together for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 6 years now! But that’s dating back to the v e r y beginning, when we used to play up in the loft. Alex used to mess with songs acoustically and take them down to the local sci-fi themed village pub ‘Trekkers’ for live review. But eventually yes, more instruments were welcomed – Tristan is Alex’s younger brother and plays bass in Kotki Dwa. Tom plays the drums – Tom went to school with Alex.

Yeah it’s a bit annoying is it? Maybe ‘THE Kotki Dwa’ would be easier to remember…. Um, Kotki Dwa is the title of a Polish lullaby that Alex and Tristan used to have sung to them when they were small. It’s been passed through the Ostrowski family like an ancient Polish Pierogi. Actually, pretty much every Polish person knows about it and grew up with it. We’re not actually fully Polish, for the record.

Who, if anyone, influences you musically?

Frank Sinatra, Jonathan Richman, Clor, Andrew Lloyd Webber…. We have quite a theatrical streak going on a lot of the time, which is fun to play with. Suppose it’s fun to let the music enhance and create the right atmosphere for the lyrics to be told within… a bit like setting a scene or a stage. We’re really interested in the idea of using quite blunt synthetic sounds, but making them behave in quite a sophisticated, more classical manner – something we’re still looking into and working on.

As a band do you feel like part of any particular scene or collective or are you musical love wolves?

No, fraid not. We feel quite odd-ballish. We started making music in Milton Keynes to begin with, which (sorry) doesn’t have much of a music scene, or it didn’t feel like there was at the time – maybe that’s changed….. Also, we all live in different parts of the country, so we’re kind of disjointed from any local scene. But it makes things strange, which can be helpful.

Any up and comers you think we should be keeping an ear out for?

Yes there’s a musical genius called Michael Lovett who’s band is called NZCA/LINES. He’s brilliant, and you should check him out. Also love La Shark – got to see them live if you haven’t before.

You’re about to drop a new Ep ‘Lunch’, how did you go about making it and have you tried to fit it into any running theme/concept?

Yes! We record ourselves in a pretty home-cooked way (currently at a ‘business village’ in Northamptonshire…) and then mix and master to get things tarted up a bit better. The songs aren’t written to a theme or concept, as a group. Some ideas do crop up on repeat – just because the songs have been written in the same year – but it’s not a ‘concept EP’ or anything. But we’ve used the artwork side of things to run with the LUNCH idea, which has been fun. We do all our artwork ourselves. The EP comes with a complimentary salt sachet and a signed order ticket. In a sandwich bag. Best before sticker on the back with release date penned on. We’re also putting on this party called LATE LUNCH (Tuesday 15th November) which is going to be a really good night, with experimental food, live music, djs, animated projections, theatre….. come! Get a ticket here: http://thecamplondon.com/listings/eventdetails/15-nov-11-late-lunch-the-camp-1/

Lyrically the release is hugely varied and, at points, even slightly ADHD skipping between ideas on rapid fire and seemingly at random. Who comes up with the words and how!?

We do have to hold ourselves back sometimes from putting ‘too much stuff’ in our songs. But it still always happens, and it can sound quite haphazard – but we’ve sort of resigned to it. Alex writes the words. Alex speaking ~ they’re about all sorts, and tend to stay rooted in normal, kind of dull parts of the day-to-day but wander off to think about bigger wonders. Then come back down to boring stuff again. So I suppose the jerkiness might come from that, going from the pavement to the moon, pavement, moon, pavement, moon.

Cheers for all the help, last of all what can we expect from Kotki Dwa in 2012?

No, thank YOU. We’re working on a new album which is already underway – and we have some quite unusual ideas about how to release it… watch this space…